REAL ESTATE - A single $109m (€85.6m) incentive fee paid to Jones Lang LaSalle’s investment management business helped second-quarter group-wide revenues to rise to $510m – a 57% increase over same period last year, according to figures posted last week.
The fee – described by the firm as “significant” and paid by a single client – accounted for 19% of growth in the firm’s income for the first half of the year. It covered an 8-year period.
The firm said portfolio out-performance, supported by independent valuations completed at the end of Q2, had brought the incentive fee in above expectations.
Operating income for the group as a whole was up $54.4m to $84.3m – an increase CEO Colin Dyer attributed to a combination of healthy global real estate markets and investments made in the firm, notably the acquisition of Spaulding & Slye in January. The newly acquired US real estate firm accounted for 7% of global growth in the first half of 2006.
The firm’s European operations reported mixed results. In Germany and France, “robust growth” and “continued momentum” drove up growth by 60% and 38% respectively, largely in capital markets activity. Offset against growth in Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia, were declines in Sweden and the firm’s European hotels business. UK revenues remained flat.
Europe remains a significant market for Jones Lang LaSalle following its acquisition of two UK real estate firms, Rogers Chapman and The Littman Partnership, in the second quarter, and the opening of offices in Spain, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. To date, the company has spent $7m of its $25m global full-year budget for strategic investment, including acquisition.
